Carla Neggers

Interview

Current Release: THAT NIGHT ON THISTLE LANE

Carla Neggers writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance.

Tell us About your Library Contest, what a great idea!

Thanks! The “My Favorite Library Contest” gives people a chance to win $1000 for their favorite library as well as a collection of my books. All the details are on my website: www.carlaneggers.com. If we select your entry (100 words or less telling me about your favorite library), you also receive books and a gift basket of some of my favorite New England goodies. Libraries have meant so much to me and I've heard from countless readers over the years who feel the same. The contest runs until April 1 but please enter today!

Describe your current release in two sentences?

Local Knight’s Bridge librarian Phoebe O’Dunn discovers a hidden room filled with beautiful gowns – copies of lavish movie costumes – in the library where she works. When she wears one of the gowns to a costume ball in Boston, safe in the belief she’ll never be recognized, she dances with a swashbuckling pirate. An instant attraction springs up between the two, each unaware of their close connection to the other. When they work out each other’s identities with a little help from their friends, they find themselves faced with even greater mysteries to unravel.

What have you had to give up to pursue your writing career?

Working in an office. That's the first thing that comes to mind! Of course, I have an office at home, but it's different from going into work. I recently visited my brother at his office in New York City. Security, elevators, lots of hustle and bustle. Lunches out on the town. A daily commute on the train. Not at all like my life up on my hilltop in Vermont!

What are you working on?

I'm finishing DECLAN'S CROSS, next up in my Sharpe & Donovan series. Emma Sharpe, an art crimes expert with the FBI, and Colin Donovan, an undercover agent, are in Ireland on what's supposed to be a break, but they get caught up in a decade-old art heist when an American woman – a marine science enthusiast – goes missing. It's been great fun to write, and I'm looking forward to typing "The End" and diving into CIDER BROOK, the third in my Swift River Valley series.

What is your ultimate writing goal?

You mean like have one of my books made into a movie or turned into a television series? That'd be great, wouldn't it? For me, though, writing is about getting the story that's percolating in my head onto paper (and I do mean paper since I often write by hand!). I love to write and always have since I first climbed a tree with a pad and pen as a kid.

Do you have a comfort food? What is it?

I love chicken pot pies, from Swanson to the homemade ones at our local butcher shop. Great for deadlines!

Where is your favorite place to write?

I enjoy my home office. It looks out on an old, old sugar maple. I'll stop work to watch the wild turkeys or a deer in the yard. I love to sneak off to Ireland to write. Now that my kids are grown, I can do that! I have my favorite hotel where I clear my head and relax, and I have my favorite cottage—it has a coal-and-peat burning stove for rainy Irish nights. And it's within walking distance of a couple of great pubs. What could be better?

What are your plans for the next year? Any books you are looking forward to?

It's been a busy few months here but my husband and I are looking forward to time with our families. We're scooting down to south Florida with my mother and my youngest sister (I have six brothers and sisters!). I haven't checked yet, but I'm counting on Robert Crais to have a new book out just in time for my poolside reading! My mother's recovering from breaking her leg while hanging bird feeders, so it'll be a terrific break.

How was your road to publication?

Memorable! I submitted my first manuscript to an agent a few months after my daughter was born. I'll never forget when the agent called to tell me she loved my manuscript and wanted to represent me. I was cooking Cornish hens, of all things. I was so excited. I felt like a star! I'll always be grateful for how steadfast and encouraging she was. That book eventually sold but it wasn't the first book I sold.

If you could time travel, where would you travel to and why?

I never knew any of my grandparents, and I'd love to time travel back to Holland to meet my father's parents and to the Florida panhandle to meet my mother's parents. That'd be something.

If you could live in a world created by an author, which book / world would you jump into?

I think I'd want to jump into the world Robert Crais has created with Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. It'd be cool to have a drink with them, but after a case. Not in the middle of one!

Disclosure: Most books that Night Owl reviews are received courtesy of the publisher, author or publicist. In most cases - reviewers get to keep the books they review and choose the books they will review themselves from an available to review database and based on their favorite authors and genres. Publishers, authors and publicists are not guaranteed a glowing review just because they have provided a copy of their book for review. Reviews are based on each individual reviewers opinion and not based on receiving a free copy of the work.